Play-by-play

In my first radio job in McPherson, Kansas, I hosted Bulldog Sports Weekly, a weekly coaches show featuring the head football coach of McPherson College. We did it from Wendy’s on North Main Street in McPherson. The highlight, besides the fact that I loved the coach Dan Thiessen, was free hamburgers, fries and Frosties.

If you were starving and needing to catch a fish, would you fish in a lake that has more than 200 fish, or would you fish in a lake with just one fish?

Unfortunately, trying to land a Division I football/basketball play-by-play job is like fishing in a lake with one fish and hundreds of people trying to catch it. One company, Learfield IMG College, manages most of the schools.

You must accept that looking for a DI play-by-play job is a process that is largely out of your control.Read More

Pitchers at the University of Florida used to swim as a regular part of their training. It’s well documented how Tom House, the old pitching guru, used to have his pitchers throw footballs to improve their throwing motion.

Baseball has long been a sport that is conducive to unusual training methods. The same goes for baseball broadcasters.

Here are nine uncommon tips for baseball play-by-play broadcasters.Read More

A sportscaster said, “I’ve applied for a couple of hockey play-by-play jobs. I worked for a team six years ago but it was my first job. I’ve grown a ton as a broadcaster and that hockey is representative of what I would do now.

A friend of mine was doing high school play-by-play in a small Midwest market. He couldn’t be choosy about his analyst so he ended up with somebody who had never done it. Several plays went by without the analyst saying anything. Finally, after the fifth play, the analyst piped up and said, “The red team plays good defense.”

What do you do if you’re working with an analyst who isn’t talking much?

The best thing to do is find a new analyst! In a small market with no budget, though, that might be easier said that done. Besides, having someone who talks little is sometimes better than having nobody at all.Read More

There’s a music documentary that answers a question many sportscasters have:

Why have I not made it to the top?

20 Feet from Stardom is a highly acclaimed documentary about backup singers in the music industry. Even though they are often as talented as the people for whom they’re singing, they stay in the background, always 20 feet from the spotlight.Read More

Imagine this scene: You’re watching television. Somebody has just won a championship — a Super Bowl, a National Title, the Final Four or something similar. There’s confetti falling. A sportscaster stands atop a podium interviewing the winning players and coaches. People are kissing the championship trophy. Pandemonium. Then they go to commercial, come back from break, and there’s some poor sap standing outside a locker room getting ready to interview the losing coach.

A small market TV sports director asked me if minor league baseball is the fastest way to network TV play-by-play for all sports.

Joe Davis and Adam Amin are fabulous TV broadcasters who started their careers in minor league baseball. From their examples, though, many young broadcasters now believe that minor league baseball is the best way to network TV play-by-play.